Rheinmetall Marder 1

Notes:Development of the Marder began in the late 1950s as a chassis that could
be used for a number of vehicles, but resulted only in the Marder and Jagdpanzer
Kanone/Rakete as production vehicles.Several companies were invited to provide competing vehicles, and along
with budget delays, this meant that the final prototypes were not finished until
1967 and fielding did not begin until 1971.The Marder became at that point NATO’s only true IFV at that time.The Marder also provided the base chassis for a number of specialist
vehicles and several vehicles that did not proceed beyond prototypes.

The Marder 1

The Marder is
one of the best-protected IFVs in existence, a fact made more remarkable by the
date it began service.The Marder 1
has all-welded steel armor.The
driver is in the front hull behind a well-sloped glacis, and has three vision
blocks to the front, the center of which can be removed and replaced with a
night vision block.The driver has
a conventional station with a steering yoke, brake pedal, and gas pedal.The commander and gunner are in a turret in the center front of the hull,
which is armed with an externally-mounted light autocannon.The turret has all-around vision blocks and night vision for the gunner;
the gunner is responsible for the autocannon and the coaxial machinegun, though
both the commander and gunner have controls for them. The commander has no
dedicated night vision gear, but can access the gunner’s night sight. To the
left side of the autocannon are a cluster of six smoke grenade launchers.Though the Rh-202 autocannon allows for dual feed, the Marder 1’s turret
has no room to allow this, and the Rh-202 on the Marder 1 can have only one belt
loaded into the autocannon at a time. At the rear are bench seats for six
infantrymen; the seats are near the outside of the vehicle, but face outwards to
allow the troops to use their firing ports.Two ports are found on each side, and primary entry and exit are by a
powered ramp at the rear.The
seating pattern can be adjusted so that four troops can lie down and sleep while
the other two remain seated and manning firing ports.One of the troops in the rear is seated behind the driver and has a
periscope that can rotate 360 degrees. The rear deck has a pair of circular
overhead hatches, as well as a remote overhead weapon station with a machinegun
be traversed 135 degrees either way of center and normally faces to the rear.

The Marder 1 is
powered by an MTU MB-833 Ea-500 600-horsepower diesel engine along with an
automatic transmission.This gives
the Marder 1 reasonable speed and agility despite its rather high weight.The Marder 1 is not amphibious; an amphibious operations kit was devised
for the Marder series, but never adopted by the German Army. However, a kit does
exist that that increases the normal 1-meter fording capability to 2.5 meters.This kit takes 6 minutes to deploy, provided it is already attached to
the vehicle.

The First Upgrades

The first
upgrades were the Marder 1A1 upgrades; there were three of these, most of which
differ only in minor details.The
complete Marder 1A1 upgrade package, the Marder 1A1(+), changes the layout of
the turret enough to allow for dual feed for the Rh-202 autocannon.The night vision suite for the gunner and commander are improved, and the
fire control system uses a thermal pointer, a sort of low-tech laser
rangefinder.Perhaps the biggest
change in the Marder 1A1(+) is the addition of an overhead mount for a Milan
ATGM.The turret has a hatch to
allow the commander to look out and to reload the Milan launcher. The commander
must have his head and chest outside of the turret to aim and fire the Milan
launcher; the gunner is responsible for the autocannon and coaxial machinegun.As an added touch, the Milan launcher has a holder so that the commander
can grab his protective mask quickly if necessary.Inside the vehicle, new racks for water cans have been installed, as well
as rearranged stowage for the equipment and weapons of the infantry squad
inside.However, the changes inside
have reduced the room for the infantry squad to the point that only a five-man
squad can be carried.

The Marder
1A1(-) is almost identical, but does not have the thermal pointer.The mount is still there, however, and installation of the thermal
pointer will turn it into a Marder 1A1(+).The Marder 1A1A is also similar, but does not have the upgraded night
vision gear or the thermal pointer.
Again, installation of the equipment will turn it into a Marder 1A1(+); the
Marder 1A1(-) and Marder 1A1A were devised primarily as cost-saving measures.

By 1983, all the
Marders in German service had been converted to the new Marder 1A2 standard.This upgrade replaces the gunner’s image intensifier with a thermal
imager, which the commander can also access.The searchlight is removed, the fuel tanks are made self-sealing, the
cooling system is improved, and the suspension modified to give a better ride.The Marder 1A2’s Milan launcher is also upgraded to Milan 2 standards.

A Major Upgrade – The Marder 1A3

Conversions to
the Marder 1A3 standard began in 1989; though reunification slowed things down
due to economics, virtually every Marder was converted to the 1A3 standard by
1999.The most marked difference in
the 1A3 is the huge increase in armor protection – most autocannons are not
going to penetrate the glacis, and many will not be able to penetrate the sides.Side armor was increased to the point that the firing ports were blocked
off.Turret armor was also
increased, and even the floor and hull deck armor have been increased.The hatch pattern on top of the passenger compartment has been
rearranged; there are now three hatches in a triangular pattern; two towards the
front of the compartment and one towards the rear.The rear remote machinegun has been moved to be over the extreme left
rear of the compartment.As the
weight of the Marder 1A3 is significantly increased, the suspension has been
considerably beefed up.New
internal stowage arrangements have been made, and the sixth infantryman has been
added back into the squad.The new
stowage also improves the feed chutes to the autocannon (they could jam
sometimes), and ends a persistent problem with the commander banging his knees
painfully on equipment boxes inside the turret.It also gives the commander and especially the gunner more room to
operate in general. The Milan launcher includes a thermal imager.

The Marder that Almost Was – The Marder 1A3/40

The Marder
1A3/40mm is a Marder 1A3 with a new turret mounting a Bofors 40mm autocannon,
and a few other improvements, particularly in fire control and night vision.The turret is of a completely different shape, similar to that of the
CV-9040, but smaller. Germany gained the autocannons in a reciprocal agreement
(Germany traded Sweden some MT-LBs, T-55s, and BMP-1s in exchange for some
autocannons and cash).The vehicle
is otherwise similar to the standard Marder 1A3.However, the Marder 1A3/40mm will almost certainly never be adopted by
the Germans, as they do not feel the increase in firepower or the cost are
warranted.

Twilight 2000
Notes: The Marder 1A3/40mm was adopted in small numbers in the Twilight 2000
timeline.

Notes:This vehicle is the German counterpart to the Swedish Bv-206s, being
optimized for difficult terrain such as ice, deep snow, and swamps.It is, however, a single-unit vehicle rather than a twin-unit vehicle
like the Bv-206. It uses extra-wide tracks and an engine with additional low
gears to accomplish this sort of mobility.The TH-439 is used in a variety of roles, including troop carrier,
command post, ambulance, and mortar towing vehicle.

The commander
and driver are seated at the front, with bullet resistant windows to their front
and sides.Smaller windows are on
the sides of the passenger compartment.The commander and driver have doors on either side of their positions and
there is a large door in the rear of the vehicle that also has a window.These windows have armored shutters which can be raised and lowered from
within vehicle. The vehicle has heating and air conditioning; optionally, it can
be NBC sealed. Night vision is also optional, but more commonly, night vision
consists of a pair of NODs worn by the commander and driver. Many of these
vehicles have 3 firing ports in each side and one in the rear, a hatch above the
commander's position with a machinegun mount, and hatches above the passenger
compartment.

The engine and
transmission are under the cab; this is a Mercedes-Benz OM-352A 150-horsepower
engine coupled to an automatic transmission with pivot steer capability.The standard engine is water-cooled, but an option is an air-cooled KHD
152-horsepower turbocharged engine.
The double-wide tracks are protected by armored side skirts.The TH-439 is fairly tall, including a tall suspension; this helps
mobility in rough terrain or deep snow or mud, but increases its profile as
well.

Twilight 2000
Notes: Some 100 of these vehicles made it into the Twilight War, usually with
mountain troops.

Price

Fuel Type

Load

Veh Wt

Crew

Mnt

Night Vision

Radiological

$10,064

D, A

1.05 tons

6.5 tons

2+8

4

Headlights

Shielded

Tr Mov

Com Mov

Fuel Cap

Fuel Cons

Config

Susp

Armor

159/111

35/26

116

75

Stnd

T2

HF3HS2HR2

Fire Control

Stabilization

Armament

Ammunition

None

None

MG-3 (C)

1000x7.62mm

Rheinmetall Wiesel 2 APC

Notes:This is a larger development of the Wiesel 1 multipurpose vehicle, used
as a personnel carrier in light infantry formations; it’s sort of a “jeep
version” of an APC.The Wiesel 2
has one more roadwheel (for a total of five small roadwheels) on each side and
is taller, and has over twice the interior space.The engine was changed to a 1.91 Volkswagen 109-horsepower turbocharged
diesel, coupled to an automatic transmission, giving it outstanding agility,
especially when considering its small size and low weight.Armor protection is likewise improved, and the Wiesel 2 even has heating,
air conditioning, and an NBC overpressure system. Basic APC versions of the
Wiesel 2 can carry half a standard German infantry squad and their equipment.The troops enter through a large door in the hull rear face.There is a hatch on the front left deck for the driver with an excellent
array of vision clocks, and a cupola on the front right deck for the commander.The cupola has a remote MG-3 machinegun that can be aimed and fired from
under armor, and has all-around vision blocks with a night vision
periscope/gunsight.New treads
complete the redesign.

The Wiesel 2 is
not, however, normally used as a simple APC. Several specialist versions are
made, over a dozen in all. The Wiesel 2 Ambulance is a medical evacuation
version of the Wiesel 2 APC.In
this role, the Wiesel can carry a stretcher or 3 seated patients (or one
stretcher and one seated patient), and has medical supplies.The Wiesel 2 Ambulance carries an oxygen tank, a selection of medical
supplies, a doctor's medical bag, and refills for one squad's worth of personal
medical kits.It is normally
unarmed.A command post carrier
version is built, with 1 short, one 1 medium, and 1 long-range radio as well as
a ruggedized laptop computer and other command supplies; a hand-held thermal
imager, image intensifier, and laser rangefinder are also included in the cost.